Shoshones lived in western Wyoming and the Wind River Mountains for at least 3500 years, perhaps 8,000 years ago. They still maintained strong ties to their homelands along the Green, Bear, Snake, and Salmon rivers. Then deadly smallpox epidemics in the 1780s, combined with attacks by their foes, forced Shoshones to retreat west of the Rocky Mountains to their Idaho and western Wyoming homelands.

Washakie is the best-known Eastern Shoshone leader, and his personal history demonstrates the fluid nature of Eastern Shoshone origins. Washakie was invited to the vast majority of councils with Mormon and U.S. government officials in concerns of Shoshone affairs. Washakie signed the 1868 Treaty of Fort Bridger, and he successfully claimed the Wind River Reservation for the Eastern Shoshones. However, for many decades after the Treaty, fighting and new treaties took place over the lands between settlers, other tribes, and the government.

From 1940 to now, The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes have separate governments and share the land. Once banned by the government, cultural traditions and ceremonies are now celebrated and encouraged. These include rituals such as the sweat lodge, Sun Dance, Ghost Dance, and the Native American Church. Beadwork, powwow dancing, and other traditional practices thrive to the delight of tribal members and non-tribal visitors alike. In addition, both tribes are attempting to preserve their native language.